Bedtime conversations

I love putting Christian to bed nowadays. It used to be an agony, cos he would take so long to toss and turn, and cling on to one hand of mine as if afraid that i'd run away.. things have improved though, as this boy grows more secure in his parents' love.

I picked P up from the train station around Ch's bedtime last night, so my mum helped to change him, and settle him down after milk. I returned home just when the lights were turned off, so I went in to take over from my mum. And I was glad I did, cos the pre-sleep time is really such a precious time when his thoughts and insecurities pop up.

We were lying side by side and I thought he was going to keep quiet and fall asleep, when he suddenly turned to face me and asked "Mama, tell me..when you were a little girl."

I asked "Erm... what about the time when I was a little girl? What do you want to hear?"

He said "When you were a little girl.. and you fall and fall and fall..."

I realised he remembered my passing comment when we walked at Henderson Waves the other day. He'd fallen down and was bawling from the bloody scrape when I tried to comfort him by telling him that "when i was little, i fell down a lot too..once a year.. and gonggong had to clean my wound and put lotion on it every year.' I had already forgotten that I made that comment, but the little one remembers everything.

And so i began to tell him of how i used to like to jump around with my friends in school, and play amongst the big tree roots that jutted out from the ground. He butted in "And you fell into the drain and cut your leg?"

(Well, such an instance did happen, though it was not when i was jumping around in primary school around those tree roots..)

In order to not complicate matters, I simply said yes.. and he interjected again, full of concern..

"Did someone help you??"

I laughed and was touched by his concern. He continued nattering "When I fall down in school, Ms Divine helped me to wipe my knee with waaateeer, and teee-ssue..and then she put a plaster on it."

I told him how my father used to clean my wound and apply a blue lotion on it and he seemed satisfied with the answer, but then said 'what about the plaster? why never put plaster?' forcing me to launch into an explanation on how air-drying is good for wounds because it allows the scab to form faster etc..

He fell asleep shortly after, and I could hear a soft grinding of his molars..I wished I could bundle him up and carry him like a baby so he would feel secure and stop grinding his teeth. It then struck me that he has grown to be sooo big, and is no longer the baby i had to rock in my arms for hours to put to sleep. How quickly 3 years flies by us. He'll probably be in the army before I know it.